“There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” Galatians 3:28

Gender Gaps have existed for generations in our society in regards to the Black Church and Women. Traditionally, in earlier generations, the pulpit has been viewed as “men’s space” and the pew as “women’s place.” Although this traditional view has changed over the years, women have now become officially recognized as preachers and pastors in many black church denominations. Women pastors have made many powerful, significant, positive impacts in our churches, and are emerging as spiritual leaders of the 21st century. One of those leaders is Bishop Vashti MacKenzie, who was recently elected the first woman bishop in the 213 year history of the A.M.E. church. Bishop MacKenzie and other women in the A.M.E. ministry are trailblazers and represent the type of women that are in the ministry today. However, in society we still face another very serious and urgent gender gap: Computer Technology – The New Gender Gap - Girls and Women.

A report released in October 1998 by the American Association of University Women (AAUW) Educational Foundation shows that girls come to school with less computer experience than boys and years later, leave the same way, effectively shutting the first in many series of doors on high-end technology careers. It’s easy to see the problem if one looks at the small number of women entering technology fields in college and graduate school or try to find the few women actually working in computer related jobs beyond data-entry, customer service, and administrative work.

The “virtual ceiling” has replaced the “glass ceiling” as a barrier to girls’ advancement, according to the new report, Gender Gaps: Where Schools Still Fail Our Children. If nothing is done, girls and women will be bystanders in the 21st century economy. That sums up the urgency of the situation.

The report Gender Gaps also found that teachers receive little or no training in how to use the latest emerging technologies. The rush to put computers in classrooms will not benefit anyone unless teachers know how to use the new technologies and learn to encourage both boys and girls to become effective users of technology. Parents and churches must join educators to ensure that our black children are introduced to technology, from teaching materials to computer labs, computer science camps, church computer school, on-line bible study, and extracurricular computer activities, in an equitable, challenging, controlled and safe learning environment.
Access to computer technology to bridge the educational digital divide between rich and poor has been the central focus during the millennium. Computer centers are opening up everywhere - churches, economic development centers, the YMCA, Boys and Girls clubs and libraries. Yet little attention is being given to technology’s impact on gender equity. Girls make up only a small percentage of students in computer science classes. While boys program and problem solve with computers, girls tend to use them for word processing (typing). And boys are more likely to enroll in advanced computer science courses: only 17 percent of advanced placement test takers in computer science were girls. Boys also have more experience with computers outside of school. Such experience leads them to exhibit higher self-confidence and more positive attitudes about computers than girls do. More and more careers, from architecture to fashion design to meteorology, require computer fluency. In today’s new Internet economy, over 90% of jobs require technology skills.

Video games and school software programs often reinforce gender bias and stereotypical gender roles, with very few powerful, active female role models. Studies show that the female characters appeared in the passive and stereotypical roles of mother and princess. In contrast, male characters appeared as heavy equipment operators, factory workers, shopkeepers, mountain climbers, and hang gliders.
The gender gap continues into college. This trend is particularly startling because computer science is a relatively new field that has been open to college women since its beginning approximately 25 years ago. In 1995 only 28 percent of bachelor’s degrees and 26 percent of master’s degrees in computer science and only 16 percent of both bachelor’s and master’s degrees in engineering - related technologies were held by women.

If girls do not learn technology skills, they will be ill prepared for the challenges of the 21st century. As other educational gender gaps shrink, it is imperative that girls be equipped to take advantage of emerging trends in employment and technology. If the current gender gap continues, women will continue to be relegated to lower paying, low skill jobs without room for advancement.

In our past generations, black women challenged the restrictions on women preachers and emerged into the pulpit to become pastoral leaders. Today, the mothers of the church and women in the church must also challenge and encourage our black girls and black women to enter the new and exciting field of computer technology! There is no longer a restriction to take a subliminal path to the ministry or to a field in computer science. Opportunities are readily available to women in both of these areas of study and each of us must allow God to lead us down the right path to righteousness.